Owen Dauves
Owen is a white male of above-average height, covered head-to-toe in freckles. He has a masculine face and body, with hair the color of a dark hazelnut, and eyes a brighter mostly-brown hazel. His face somehow has the ability to become an almost unnatural red when the time calls for it. He has a wide array of clothing he will wear, from tank tops to hoodies to sweaters that droop off of his shoulders but still show a bit of his belly. He doesn't own very many dark clothes, and doesn't usually wear hoodies unless he's feeling sick or really down and wants the comfort provided by the heavy fabric. Personality Unlike what his height, weight, and build might suggest, Owen is a very extravagant and outgoing teenager with a bright future ahead of him. He is very creative, intelligent, and kind, and can even be confident or even somewhat cocky. He can be optimistic and helpful. He loves music, fashion, or just about any way to express himself. However, it is incredibly difficult for Owen to express that part of himself, however big a part of him it may be, as he suffers from low self-consciousness and self-esteem, and severe social anxiety. He is pessimistic when it comes to himself and his own abilities, and believes himself to be incapable of not screwing something up or making a fool of himself. He is terrified of people, especially as individuals, and talking to them. He doesn't really think he is anything special or unique, and doesn't see himself in any of the careers he wants because of this; he knows he has a problem, he just doesn't know how to cope with or combat it. He can become very close to specific people if they show him patience and kindness, and he needs those people to bring out the best in him and to show him that he is worth something. Without them, he would fall deep into a depression he would never be able to hope to crawl out of. He wouldn't stand a chance. He's shy and jittery, but can be cocky. He's nervous around people, but unaffected by some of the most common fears. He can be masculine and feminine, smart and creative or geeky. He seems like one thing, but always surprises one with another, conflicting version of that. He's very sweet and kind, generally, and it takes a lot to get him to snap. He likes to joke around, have fun, or just chill, but he can also sometimes go serious and almost cold. He doesn't always think things through, and he's afraid to stray off the trails he's crested for himself, but once he does, he goes all in. Canon History Owen was born into a family with two loving parents, who raised him into all of the person he is, nurturing his soft side and disciplining his bad behaviors, not taking "boys will be boys" as any sort of excuse to let him off easy when he misbehaved. They would play with him and take him out for treats like ice cream or amusement parks when he got good grades or made achievements, or for obvious little things like birthdays, or just for family bonding. When his little sister, Lily, was born when he was five years old, Owen fell in love with her glittering blue eyes, her soft skin, her cute laugh, the way she smiled at him when he watched her, or the way her hand curled around his fingers. She was perfect. As she grew, Owen only grew more attached to her, protective and loving like a big brother is expected to be. He was almost as proud of her as his parents were. As she grew, so did Owen. He started middle school, and it went really well. He had friends, most people ignored him, and he had a few bullies but nothing major. The biggest thing, however, was his friend Tyler, who he developed a massive crush on. Tyler was a jock, already massive while Owen was still growing. He had the deepest brown eyes, a charming smile, and he was cool, well-respected and loved by everyone. And he chose Owen, of all people, to be his friend. He would often leave Owen when they were at school to laugh and joke with some of his other friends, but that was okay. Owen wanted him to be happy; he didn't care if Tyler had other friends he cared about too. Owen was helpless. Four years old while Owen was twelve and in seventh grade, Lily came home with bracelets she made for her whole family. They were simply pieces of yarn with beads on them- easy to break, but special to her. She gave a blue and red one with a few pink beads to her father, joking to him about the pink, a green and red and pink one to her mother, and then to Owen she gave a mostly pink one with a little bit of sky blue, almost matching her own. Her smile and intentions had been so wholesome, and Owen held onto and cherished that bracelet. It meant a lot to his sister, and he would wear it with pride! A couple weeks after, with the family as close as ever, tragedy struck and Owen was left heartbroken and empty, the most important figure in his life gone forever. Lily had died in a car accident on the way home from school. The car had been flipped on the highway, and Lily had been found ejected from the vehicle, his father unconscious at the wheel but alive and stable. His mother was furious. Grief-filled too, of course, but utterly furious. Why hadn't her daughter been fastened in her carseat? Why the hell had her husband allowed that to happen? There was a lot of tension in the house fom that point, a lot of arguing, with Owen ducking off of the radar while his mother screamed at her husband (who hadn't been charged with involuntary manslaughter by a lucky court case that ruled in his favor). Owen knew that his father blamed himself, felt worse than anyone, and he accepted his wife's wrath because of it. While all of this was going on, Tyler from school was there for Owen to lean on. He was cold, but Owen just interpreted it as understanding or pity, or even just kind silence. It was comfortable, especially since Owen didn't really want to talk. But Tyler also kept him from simply giving up on the world, and convinced him to get up every day because the world didn't stop just because you weren't feeling up to it one day. (None of these things actually said by Tyler, only interpretation on Owen's part.) However, Tyler could only help so much (which really wasn't all that much, though Owen did appreciate his efforts), and the rising tension at home and in his own mind only kept building up. The atmosphere between his parents only made him think back to Lily, imagine her death on loop, and the yelling only added even more stress than that. It always tore him apart when his parents fought, and he cried if ever they did it too much or directed it at him, but it was usually over soon and it was okay. This wasn't. His grief, his fear, his anxiety, his stress levels were all peaked, overwhelming and consuming Owen, so he began to cut. He never went more than skin deep, but he still did it- it was the only constant that he felt he had in his life, and maybe it would give him something to focus on besides his life which seemed to spiral out of control. Maybe it could become an escape- his escape- like alcohol or drugs. Around Tyler, even through his grief, Owen felt on a high. Not an emotional high, or even just a feeling, but he felt his hormones rage through his system, not out of attraction but desperation. He needed more to preoccupy himself, and his hormones and instincts screamed at him that he needed to relieve himself in a way he had never even considered before, hadn't even learned about yet. He didn't even understand the feeling, didn't really like it, but he was in middle school; even if he didn't learn about it, he still knew what it was. It made him self-conscious and he didn't know how to deal with it. He'd never felt this way before. He could only try his best not to lose his chill around the guy. All he wanted to do was cry and punch his pillow, so why did he feel this way? Well, at least Tyler never seemed to notice- he must have, surely, but he never acknowledged it, which Owen loved. Still grieving, but needing something to get him away from home, he approached Tyler and some of his friends outside of the school building, and they abruptly stopped talking. The friends snickered something under their breath, while Tyler turned around to see who they were talking about. Shying under his friends' gazes, Owen took a breath and awkwardly asked Tyler out. They all exploded into laughter. From that point on, Owen was avoided by Tyler and bullied harshly by his friends. A few times, Tyler even joined in, or did it himself when his friends weren't around. Owen was given death threats and was beaten for his sexuality, further breaking him and leading him onto a trail he never thought he'd take, betrayed and plagued with darkened thoughts even worse than before, even worse than ever. What made him think this was a good idea? About a month later, luckily for him, it was announced that his parents were separating. He would be moving far from the home he grew up in, far from the places he's grown attached to, from the things that tied him to his house. Away from the memories landmarks and items in the house left, away from his loving but depressed father, away from the people he'd known since kindergarten and the friends who didn't harass and abuse him, away from the guy who'd abused and made a fool of him but whom he still felt attraction toward. He would be away from the painful memories when seeing his sister's preschool, or when walking into her room, he would be away from his tormenters at school and away from the toxic, heavy atmosphere within his own home. Just to be thrown into the chaos waiting for him outside of his hometown in Union City, TN. New area, new people, new school hierarchy, no social bonds... Every man for themselves. He wasn't safe. No one was safe. His school was like a medieval battlefield, hectic and disorderly and chaotic, everyone an enemy of each other, no allies. No one was safe but the jocks. Everyone was a target, a victim, from the silent psychopath to the sarcastic blind to the new-in-town with "feminine" clothes and a stutter. It followed him into every class, and even outside of school. If the air at home was thick toxins, the atmosphere of this town was toxic sludge, entering your ears and nose and mouth, and sliding down your throat, wrapping around your body to drag you down to consume whole. Even his mother had grown distant, as though without someone to force the blame onto she had retreated into a darker part of herself, blameful, regretful, overflowing with grief and sadness. He knew she was, but didn't know how to help. It was like she didn't even know he existed part of the time. Would she care if he was gone? Would anyone care? Would his father hear about it? Who would miss the quiet, introverted nobody who had gone through so much the last few months that he couldn't do so much as look anyone in the eye, and could barely say hello without stuttering and having a miniature (but noticeable) panic attack? He's cried himself to sleep so often, each day. He just wanted to give in to the toxic sludge and cease his struggling. One day, he actually tries it after someone's proposition for him to kill himself. He grabs a pill bottle of his father's medicine, and... Doesn't go through with it. He's afraid to. So he tucks it under his bed, bile in his throat as he leaves his house to head to the park. He liked the open space and the soft breeze, and no one ever noticed him anyway. Sitting in a bench, he hears a voice. "Hey, are you okay there? You look down." Alarmed by the new presence and voice, he jumps and looks over to the presence and voice, his heart hammering in his chest from te initial panic. "I-I'm fine!" He says as soon as he realized he'd been asked a question. "Clearly not..." The new character, a boy around his age, sat down next to Owen, genuine concern in his voice. "What were you doing?" Owen was confused for a moment, but snuck a glance to the boy's eyes, following them to where his hand was near his sleeve, his thumb tucked under it to finger the scratches on his wrist and to fidget with the bracelet Lily gave him what seemed like years ago. "I-I-I... I was sc-scratching an itch!" He responded in a hurry, grabbing both his hodie sleeves to pull them further over his hands and wrists. "An itch...?" The newcomer said softy. "But you hid your hand..." He let out a gentle breath, and changed the topic, as though already knowing that answer and dropping it, or maybe just sensing Owen's anxiety on the subject. Owen was grateful. "What's your name?" He asked instead. With introductions out of the way, Owen discovers that this boy- Lukas- didn't live far off, and actually went to the same school as him, though they'd never seen each other in classes or in the halls. "Now are you gonna tell me what you were doing?" "I- uhh, m-my sister!" He exclaimed, thinking quickly, "sh-she gave me a bracelet, s-so- er… Sh-she gave me a bracelet, s- a-and I was m-messing with it.." It really wasn't a lie, except Owen knew as well as Lukas did that it wasn't the only thing on his wrists. He looked down, his cheeks pink. Lukas raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Why would you make up an excuse if it's just that? It's no big deal." "Eh- e-embarrassed..." He responded bashfully, hoping it wasn't as transparent to Lukas as it sounded to himself. "You're a bad liar," Lukas snickered, dropping the subject with that. They began talking more, awkward at first until they came across a good conversation topic that they could both geek out over, the tension between them ebbing significantly, though Owen subconsciously picked at one of the slightly deeper cuts instead of the bracelet. "Are you bleeding?" Lukas had asked, noticing the faintest bit of blood on Owen's exposed wrist. Owen panicked and his arm shot to his chest to hide it from Lukas. It wasn't even bad, he was just terrified of someone knowing and wasn't good at acting calm and collected. Lukas sighed and softly suggested for Owen to find other ways to cope. He didn't push it however, making Owen relax again. However, not much changed. Owen's mother was still distant, he was still bullied (and somehow peoples' gaydar meters were going off everywhere, because somehow they all knew, and called him out for it). However, they still ran into each other every once in a while. Usually Owen would be sitting in the bench at the park, and Lukas would find him. Against Owen's wishes, Lukas insists on wrapping Owen's wrists if ever he notices the cuts, even if they aren't bleeding. Owen wants to hate him for it, but he only hates himself for being so weak and helpless, and burdening his new friend. Owen loves having someone who cares so much about it, though he hates to admit it. After a while of knowing each other, Owen realizes that it's happening again. The feeling. Well, not exactly. This feeling is less desperate and physical, and more... Anxiety. No, butterflies. Is this what a crush feels like? God, he hates it; he just turns into a bright red mess, and wants to scream every time Lukas says something to embarrass or playfully flirt with him. Lukas flirts and teases him just to see him flustered, and they both know it. Owen turns tomato-red and curls into himself, his hands covering his face while his ears glow scarlet. Owen is, at one point in eighth grade the next school year, harassed and bullied so much for "being gay," with Lukas convincing him to wear whatever he wants instead on conforming to what they all say, that he actually points to a random person in his PE class- Hazel- and claims that she's his girlfriend. He f*cked up big time, and he knows it... Until she surprised him and nodded when the bullies asked her if the two of them were dating. The two were both bullied for the same thing, it turned out, though neither of them had ever crushed on a member of the same sex in public. They awkwardly came out to each other as soon as they had a moment to themselves, and then agreed to be each others' fake date to avoid bullies at least a little bit more. They don't kiss, or even show very much actual attraction at all, but they do become close friends over time. (Lukas, having no classes with Owen, overhears Vanessa talking to Jack about Hazel having a new boyfriend- Owen- and breaks down in a bathroom stall. He continues loving and supporting Owen with a smile on the face, and when Hazel is eventually mentioned, he finds out the truth, embarrassed by the fact that had to be explained, and so happy that Owen was both available and attracted to guys.) Spring of 2016 in eighth grade, the two are still going strong. Owen somehow stutters more around Lukas than he did when they first met, because now it isn't only his social anxiety, but also something much worse: the flustered, swelling, burning fire that he feels in his chest when he's around his best friend. Owen's neighbors- he lived in a duplex- built a wooden treehouse in a tree in the yard behind the home. While they were out, they told Owen that he and his friends could use it if they wanted to so long as they'd share it with the kids it was built for. Owen thanked them awkwardly, not thinking he'd ever use it, but lo-and-behold, it became a place Owen and Lukas hung out in frequently, since the neighbor's children usually rode their bikes in the streets or went to the park instead. They were up in the treehouse, when it started to rain heavily out of nowhere, despite the sky seeming relatively clear. They consider going inside, but they're having too much fun joking around and talking about whatever it is they're talking about. Plus, Owen didn't want to wake up his mother, if she was sleeping. So the two stay outside, the rain getting heavier very, very quickly. They plan to go in once they realize it wasn't letting up anytime soon, and it could be dangerous... But the rain looks so heavy that it is turning the roads themselves into raging, furious rivers, and it's suddenly so dark out, and the rain is so cold. They'd be drenched, and there most likely wasn't or soon wouldn't be power if they wanted to get warm. The house chilled fast. So they stayed out, and kept talking, though Owen noticed that Lukas was clearly anxious. When the thunder started, that's when Lukas began to freak out. Alarmed, Owen tries to talk comfort into him and calm him down, but when the rain somehow got even harder- they could barely see the tree branch next to the door of the treehouse, and it was beginning to leak through the wooden sides despite their sturdy build- that wasn't enough. He held Lukas close, murmuring things to him like he would to his little sister to calm her down. At one point, running out of ideas to keep Lukas from hyperventilating, Owen kisses him. Straight on the lips. It lasts maybe a single second before he lets go, staring into Lukas's face, not registering what he did yet, too focused on trying to calm his best friend. It worked. When the kiss wears off, he does it again, this time near Lukas's eye because a part of him realized that kissing Lukas's lips was probably the worst thing he could do (and he would be panicking more over that if he wasn't more concerned about Lukas at the moment). Lukas admits that he didn't hate it, which is the only reason Owen tried again with one or two more kisses, all of which seem to calm his crush down. When a tornado siren goes off, however, Lukas pulls himself into gear, still shaking in absolute terror, explaining what the sound was, and that they needed to shelter underground quickly. It's Owen's house, so he leads Lukas to the basement, the both of them running through the rain, and avoiding anything paved at all costs, afraid they'd be swept away (and they almost were anyway). They use the flashlight left near the door of the house, and go down, both shaking in fear and the cold, huddled by the wall to keep each other warm. Owen's mother is down there as well, but he doesn't notice her as he and his crush huddle together. "So you kissed me like, twice... More than that. Are we like- do you want to be- a thing...?" "Hell yeah." Universe/RP * Owen is originally seen in the Family Restart, which is most of his canon story after his move, but he has made many appearances elsewhere * Owen has appeared in a modern RP with Sutcliff as a college student working as a barista, and another roleplay where he was a man in the 1800s, expected to have a wife and kids Trivia * Owen is roleplayed by Shadow * Owen is homosexual and homoromantic, the most basic combo of Shadow's main human OCs * In the roleplay he was originally created in, Owen's brother was Jamison * Owen originally had almost no design, simply "white with freckles." His design was only semi-solidified July 23, 2019, over a year after he was made. It was most likely based off of several animatics Shadow saw, conscious decision or not. * It took several years, but Owen is Shadow's most developed OC. * Owen is the only one of Shadow's characters with a favorite color. * His backstory with Tyler was based off of "The Trevor Project," and all other similarities (such as his love of musical theatre or the method he almost tried to kill himself) are coincidental. Category:Main Characters